Isn’t DNS naturally decentralized? Sure of course there are many that are owned/controlled but the concept is just the broadcast/transmission/communication of domain name to ip addresses. Each DNS is linked to others and updating each others records. Anyone can set up a DNS.
Discussion
No, DNS is not decentralized. There is a trust issue with decentralizing DNS. The way it works right now, you send your DNS query to a trusted nameserver like Google (8.8.8.8) or Cloudflare (1.1.1.1), and trust that the nameserver returns a correct DNS record. To decentralize this, you would need a way to verify that the DNS records are valid, and not directing you to a malicious phishing site or something like that.
Ahhh, okay. That does make it more tricky.
Would could say that “DNS isn’t decentralized per se, but it is partially distributed—hierarchically with a central master registry through which all information must ultimately pass.” Is the central master ICANN?
Yes ICANN is the top level authority for DNS.
https://www.icann.org/en/system/files/files/what-icann-does-22jun12-en.pdf